Like most Brits my age I grew up with a sci-fi Children's program
on BBC called Doctor Who. (For those who know, my doctor was Jon
Pertwee, although I also saw a good bit of early Tom Baker.) It was
actually the longest-running sci-fi TV series in the world, running
from 1963-89.

A few years ago it was revived in the UK and has become a big hit
- and not just for children. Doctor Who always had themes and
scripts that went beyond the children's' audience and the series
developed a huge fan base that lived off books and audio series
even when the TV series died. The revival follows this with shows
that are written to appeal as much to adults as kids. It was really
great to sit with a couple my age and their 8 and 10 year old
daughters and enjoy the new series. The scripts and acting are
good, the only change is that the special effects are also good now
(the old special effects made classic star trek look high-tech).

At home we don't watch much telly, the last shows we watched regularly were
Buffy and Angel. Cindy, being American, had never seen Doctor Who
growing up, but she loves the new series. When we get a new set of
DVDs there's usually several nights of "it's late, we're tired, but
maybe we can do one more".

If you've never seen Doctor Who the place to start is the opening
episode of the revived series: Rose.
(Wikipedia has mind-bogglingly comprehensive coverage, but I won't link from here as it's
naturally full of spoilers.) Rose not only introduces the set up
you'll need for other episodes (who the Doctor is, what the TARDIS is)
but also does a really good job of distilling the tone of Doctor Who,
capturing the mix of adventure and comedy.

If you like Rose then you can either carry on with the full first
season or cherry pick highlights. If you prefer the latter I'll
suggest my favorites. My big favorite from the first series was the
two part The
Empty Child / The
Doctor Dances. I rate this as better than most films I've seen,
certainly better than most TV. (It won a Hugo award so it's not just
me.) It was written by Steven Moffat who is also known for writing
the comedy series Coupling. Almost as good is Dalek.
It lacks the humor but scores due to a wonderfully intense performance
from Christopher Eccleston. I also really like the final two part (Bad
Wolf / The Parting of the Ways) but you really need to see the whole
series to appreciate it properly. (A tip if you do watch the whole
series: don't watch the trailer for Bad Wolf (it appears at the end
of Boom Town) as it gives away an
important part of the plot of Bad Wolf.)

The second series has a different actor playing the Doctor (they
have a nice technobabble rationalization to allow them to change
actors easily). It doesn't quite hit the high spot of The Empty
Child but is still really good. My suggestions for cherry pickers
here would by The Girl in the Fireplace (another Moffat Hugo
win) and The
Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit.

When I said the second series didn't quite hit the heights of The
Empty Child, I'm not being very reasonable because those two
episodes are far too good for any TV series to live up to. However
the third series (not yet all broadcast in the US - it's good to have
friends in the UK) hits those high notes twice. Human Nature / The
Family of Blood is a super two-parter that threatens to take
away Steven Moffat's crown of writing the best episode. Moffat's
response is Blink, which is as good a 45 minutes of TV as you could
ever hope for. Not just has it
got a great story and some cracking humor, it also achieves Doctor Who's
higher purpose. You see Doctor Who is only secondarily about
entertainment, it's primary purpose was always to scare the living daylights
out of small children. I may be too old now to get behind the
sofa, but I do remember how much I enjoyed it.